First Video Post!

Just before Easter, we finally broke down and got a video camera. Clay and I are both fans of still photos, so video just wasn't a priority for us...but everyone we knew was aghast that we would let Sam grow up and not have videos of him to play back one day when he's all grown. We're so glad we finally came around!

We've had a lot of fun catching little moments of Sam being Sam...

Hippity Hoppity!

Sam's First Easter!

We had a great Easter! We celebrated an early Easter (and Phy's 60th birthday!) with Chip, Phy, Aunt Meredith & Uncle Mike the weekend before, then headed to North Carolina to celebrate with the Stricklands - Nana, Papa, and Uncle David.

Sam's favorite part of the holiday: EASTER EGGS! Nana gave him a big bowlful of plastic eggs, and Sam dove in headfirst! He played with them all weekend. He pulled them apart, put them together, dumped them out, threw them around, shook them, banged them, dropped them, picked them up, and...of course...ate them.

Sam and Dad made some delicious Easter cupcakes with sprinkles...now, Sam just wishes he were allowed to EAT one!

Hopefully Sam will pick up his Dad's culinary skills!

Sam loved his Easter basket! Mom couldn't wait for him to see it...so she convinced the Easter Bunny to arrive a day early! Sam is a lucky little man; apparently his mom, Nana, and Phy all talked to the Easter Bunny and convinced him to bring THREE Easter baskets...lucky guy!

On Easter Sunday, we spent the whole day at The Cabin -- on Papa Hal and Grandma Janie's farm. This is a very special place for our large and ever-growing family - its where we "Swarming Stricklands" have spent every holiday for as long as we all can remember!

This was our first holiday without Papa Hal and Kati, and it just didn't feel the same without them. We planted two cherry trees for them at the farm as a reminder that they'll always be with us...especially when we're there.

After the planting was complete, Sam had a blast hunting Easter eggs with all the other great-grandbabies. Grandma's egg hunt is a long tradition, and it was fun to pass it along to Sam's generation. He may not have found many eggs, but he sure had fun doing it!

Hallie took the prize with 80 eggs!

After we finished planting the cherry trees, Aunt Tricia told us about a recent sermon from their church about "the thin places" - the places where, for you, the line between heaven and earth is very thin. For all of us Stricklands, the Cabin is one of those thin places. It was another gorgeous holiday spent with the people who matter most to us, enjoying God's amazing blessings...and missing those who couldn't be with us.

It was a HOPPY Easter!

Happy Springtime!

Crawling and pulling up aren't the only new tricks in Sam's book! I think his baby days are fleeting...in the last two months, he's turned into such a little boy!

He is feeding himself...which is obvious from the picture below! His favorites are Cheerios, peas, and yogurt. He also likes to drop his food off the high chair...and his bottle...and his spoon...and his sippy cup...

March Madness got Sam into the spirit! Even though the Deacs lost in the second round (and his dad's team...who are they, again?...lost in the first round), he seems to be a budding basketball fan. He had a great time dribbling the bball with Nana and Papa. He got such a kick out of the fact that when he pushed the ball down, it bounced back at him!

He's a sweet little man! Sam is SO HAPPY, and just laughs all the time. His laughter is infectious (much like the ear infections he battled all winter), and we never know what will get him going. Splashing in the bath, watching Annie eat food he dropped off the high chair, and watching mom and dad sing his favorite songs - the Itsy Bitsy Spider and The Wheels on the Bus Go Round & Round - seem to be hilarious to little Sam!

Sleeping is one thing Sam never seemed to find very fun! He IS, however, finally sleeping through the night. Mom and Dad are starting to feel sane again! He's never been a great napper, though we continue to try valiantly...he can sleep like a champ, though, in his stroller or his car seat.

Sam loves water! Everytime we take a walk, we stop to watch the St. Johns River rolling by...

Thanks to the teething, Sam is drooling nonstop!

On a pretty spring Sunday afternoon, we put a blanket out in the yard and let Sam crawl around. He loved it! He spent very little time on the blanket, but he loved digging in the grass and dirt!

Stay tuned - there's one more post to come this week, and it includes bunny ears!

And he's off!

Sam first started crawling in early March, and once he got started, he never stopped! He crawls all day long, and he is thrilled with his newfound freedom. The first time he realized he could crawl from one room into another, he looked back at us and just started laughing out loud!

The pulling up started just a day or two after the crawling, and Sam definitely prefers being on his feet. He loves to pull up on the furniture and walk along it, then sit down, turn around, and find something else to pull up on. He's a man on the move!

March: Holy Water and Leapin' Leprechauns!

We are so far behind on updating this blog that it's impossible to do a real update in a single post! We'll start tonight with March...and we'll follow it up with more updates and lots more pictures tomorrow night!

Sam began the month with one very exciting day -- he was baptized and learned to crawl all in the same day! Below are pics of his baptism and some of his very first "steps"...

Poor Sam... his mom loves dressing him up for holidays. He and his hat were a big hit at daycare on St. Patty's Day!